As a lawyer and politician I believe in our personal ambitions we are individualists. But in our seeking for economic, education, social and political progress as a nation, we all go up or else all go down as one people.

Category: Life

This year EURO 2008 co-hosts are Switzerland and Austria. I am more fascinated with Swiss as it has been my childhood dream to visit there one day. Tomorrow will be the kick-off, starts at 12.00 am, although my dream is unable to materialise yet, at least I have the chance to view one of the greatest football competition (TV). Matches are from stadiums around cities of Basel, Zurich, Bern and Geneve. Flippped my new book entitles ‘501 Must-Visit Cities’, impressive sceneries and stunning architecture. This country is frequently named as the nation with the best quality of life in the world. Splendid! Extraordinary!

Change cannot come without effort. Change is possible when the aim is clear.

With the power of the mind, we can reduce and even eliminate many of the problems we encountered. Everything depends on the mind. The creative power of the thought is the greatest power of all. A man can talk himself into happiness or unhappiness, or into failure or success.

Read a foreign article stating that the months of May and June is peak suicide season in most parts of the world. Why do suicide rates spike in the hotter and wetter months?

Research and figures show that indeed during these two months, especially in countries with 4 seasons such as Hong Kong, China and Taiwan more people take their lives than any other time of the year. It could be due to the looming exams, jobs/business pressure or the fact that they have spent all their savings on travelling over the Lunar New Year and Easter and now have no big holidays to look forward to and no money. Conversely the suicide rate is lower in December and January due to the fact that Christmas followed by the Lunar New Year festival keeps people’s spirit up and helps them stay connected with loved ones.

It could also be a seasonal effect, the change of weather. It is very humid and people are very moody, prone to depression. To me that simply prove how important family and friends are because during the festive seasons, a person would finds hope and love regardless what makes them depressed. My past experience working as a waiter in the hospitality industry which shows that the chefs were the most bad-tempered one due to their exposure to fire/humidity while cooking. Though in Malaysia, the change of weather is not much of a difference, it could be the lifestyle. Ironically I believe there are basically 3 factors: job pressures (or no-job pressure), money and family problems that make a person depressed.

The moral of the above? Always be cool and give priority to your loved ones. We can stop oursleves from falling into the doldrums by counting our blessings. Focus on what’s going well instead of what is going wrong. Above all keep busy and enjoy whatever we do and spend quality times with our family. Oh ya, (as the worst haze may come) switch on the air-conditioner and spend more time at home, heck with the bills.